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It was another successful and busy athletics weekend at home and abroad.

In Nigeria, Solomon Busiendich won the richest mountain race in Africa which earned him Sh3.6 million as Selina Kosgei and Amos Mutai won the Singapore leg of the Greatest Race on Earth on Sunday.

Standard Chartered’s Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) athletes Mutai and Kosgei, both Kenyan, ran course record times of 2:15:01 and 2:31:55 respectively to win the men’s and women’s Singapore Marathon.

The victory for Kosgei, who was accompanied to Singapore and supported by her family, maintains her team Cyclone’s position as leaders of the GROE Women’s Team Challenge.

They now have a cumulative time of 5:04:41, putting them over nine minutes ahead of their nearest rivals, the Grazy Girls, with both the first leg in Nairobi and now the second leg in Singapore completed.

Mutai’s spirited run for Marathon Centre Kericho has lifted his team’s position from 14th in the GROE Main Team Challenge to lead position.

Favourite

Previous leaders Run for Fun team dropped to 20th position, despite being represented by one of the pre-marathon favourites Joseph Ngolepus.

The Standard Chartered GROE, with a total prize pool of US$1.5 million, is a team relay of four challenging marathons in Nairobi, Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong. The field of elite athletes and emerging talent sped away from the start-line at 6am along the Esplanade Drive.

The 2006/07 GROE Series sees participation from over 30 countries, the focus of which is the Nations Challenge.

Zimbabwe’s Oliver Kandiero shone in Singapore, as he stormed through the course to finish with a time of 2:21:23. This puts them in third place in the Nations Challenge, closing the gap to Kenya in second to just half a minute.